Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, California, in October 1964 to Shyamala Gopalan, an Indian biomedical scientist who spent 40 years in breast cancer research, and Donald J. Harris, a Jamaican born economist who became the first Black scholar tenured in Stanford’s economics department. After her parents divorced when she was seven, she lived in Urbana, Evanston and Madison, visited her grandfather in Chennai, and finished high school in Montreal before attending Howard University, where she joined Alpha Kappa Alpha. She earned her law degree at UC Hastings in 1989 and began as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County in 1990. In 2003 she defeated her former boss Terrence Hallinan to become San Francisco’s district attorney.

She narrowly beat Republican Steve Cooley for California attorney general in 2010, won a U.S. Senate seat in 2016, and drew national attention for prosecutorial questioning of nominees including Brett Kavanaugh, Jeff Sessions and Kirstjen Nielsen. Her 2020 presidential bid raised $1.5 million in its first 24 hours but ended before the Iowa caucuses. As Joe Biden’s vice president she cast a record 33 tie breaking votes in an evenly split Senate. After Biden withdrew in July 2024 she ran a 107 day campaign with Tim Walz, and on November 5, 2024, lost to Donald Trump 312 to 226 in the Electoral College and 48.3 to 49.8 percent in the popular vote, amid an inflation driven backlash against incumbents worldwide.

• As district attorney she cleared 27 of 74 backlogged homicide cases in her first six months.
• Her Back on Track reentry program reported recidivism under 10 percent, against a state average above 50 percent.
• As attorney general she walked away from the initial national mortgage settlement and secured billions more for California homeowners.
• She conceded the 2024 race at Howard University and certified the result as president of the Senate.
• Afterward she signed with CAA, published a book titled 107 Days, and ruled out a 2026 run for California governor.